Women In Sport: Daisy Pearce

Swisse

August 21, 2016

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Daisy Pearce isn’t about to get sidelined by the boys. Getting her first taste of the game at eight years old, when her dad Daryl, a coach for the Bright junior footy team, allowed her to train with the U13’s.

“Football was a big part of family life for me. My mum, dad and brothers were footy mad. As kids my older brother Harry and I were ultra-competitive and for a long time my life’s ambition was to do everything he did and try to do it better!” she told Fox Sports.

And she’s only come from strength to strength since. At 28, she’s captain of both the Melbourne Football Club women's side and Darebin Falcons in the Victorian Women's Football League (VWFL), alongside being the number one pick in the first women’s AFL draft.

Making her story

What keeps driving the midfielder to stay at the top of the leaderboard? The chance to be at the forefront of AFL history when the inaugural women’s national league kicks off in 2017.

“It’s so rewarding seeing where we’re at now. From someone who grew up playing footy when it wasn’t such a normal thing and I was the only girl in a boy’s team and, while I was always well supported, you knew you were different. The opportunities now are enormous,” she told The Weekly Review.

No stranger to making history, she was crowned the first female Best and Fairest winner at the Melbourne Football Club in 2014, claiming five out of six votes.

Progressing the code

Off field, her star only continues to rise. With a regular spot on Channel Seven’s Game Day panel, she’s been vocal about leading the way for female players in their fight for recognition.

The qualified midwife is also undertaking a graduate traineeship at the Melbourne Football Club, holding her in good stead for an executive role within the AFL.

As Pearce told The Saturday Paper: “Being able to run out on the MCG and look down and be wearing real AFL colours… It was just an absolute dream come true and, being female, something I didn’t think would happen. So it’s a huge personal achievement, but also bigger in the sense of the game, and what it means to be a woman in general.”